(Untitled)

[fired_once]

Who: fired_once  and lessmanmoreiron
What: Meeting in PPHQ
When: Shortly after Tony 2.0's arrival
Where: PPHQ
Rating: PG-13 for numerous references to alcohol (probably)

Comments

[lessmanmoreiron]

"No butler?" Tony asked the disembodied voice he recognized as his own. At least, that was how he had sounded before becoming trapped like this. Maybe he should adjust his voice modulator.

He followed the instructions and found himself in the office belonging to his other self quickly. His sensors and a program in the background were checking and compiling everything in the room. Tony paused and took a good look at the version of him sitting behind the desk. Older-looking than he'd expected. Tony had expected a much younger looking version.

"You're older than I thought you'd be," He announced out loud. The technology in the room was more advanced than he'd expected as well, and he could detect a suit that shared some design similarities with more recent models but wasn't familiar.

Of much more interest was the device in the other Tony's chest, and the shrapnel. It seemed to serve the same function of the chest plate the original Tony had used, but was both less bulky and less protective, and it seemed to be generating its own power. A lot of power. If not for his current ability to easily process multiple lines of thought he would have been very distracted.

"I like what you've done with the place."

[fired_once]

"Now who are you calling old?" The response was out of Tony's mouth before he had time to even register the second statement. Was this other him expecting some teenaged superhero, like the guy in the spider suit?

Still, it was over and forgotten soon enough. "Thanks for the compliment. You have good taste." He mulled over a few thoughts internally, but simply took a relaxed posture in his chair. "I'd ask if you'd like to take a seat, but I didn't design any of other chairs with large metal suits in mind. An obvious oversight, sorry about that." Joke, haha. "So what brings you down here? In full armor, no less."

He took in the nuances of the way this man, the suit, moved. It did seem to move like his own suits; easily, naturally. Not the jarring movements of Stane's Monger. And he listened, waiting for a response.

[lessmanmoreiron]

There was a short, mechanical laugh in response to Tony's apparent offense at being called old.

"If I showed up partially armored, people might talk," He said, gesturing dismissively. He paused, then looked more closely at Tony. Brown eyes? Well, that was an odd, subtle difference.

"First, I think we should establish some baseline data. I'm certain our timelines have diverged already, but we should still look for commonalities. I've been Iron Man for more than fifteen years, and an Avenger for more than ten."

[fired_once]

"Huh. I guess that makes you the old one, huh?" To others, joking might be a way to lighten the mood, or some sort of coping mechanism, but to Tony, it was just who he was.

He paused for a moment, considering what information to start with. The same seemed the best course; an equivalent exchange. "Back home, I'd been Iron Man for a bit over a year. Just trying to start up the Avengers Initiative with Nick Fury and SHIELD. I've been here over two and a half years here, though."

He wondered if that meant it'd take five years for the Avengers to get up and running in his own world. Seemed like a long time.

"At least the Avengers seems to be common between our timelines. Last person who knew me told me I was a part of the 'Ultimates.' Which seems like a much more generic and boring kind of name, if you ask me." He was leaving himself open for a pretty easy jab about the Peace Patrol name, but hey.

[lessmanmoreiron]

"You don't look that much younger," He said, "You could have a few gray hairs by the time you reach my level of experience." Another good thing about being in his new body. No growing old. Not in the way fleshy bodies did. He could upgrade to newer models whenever he wanted.

"Avengers Initiative?" That was different, Iron Man thought about that. Nick Fury getting in on starting the Avengers. "Fury is- I'm not even going to touch that. It looks like you got a later start than I did."

The Ultimates? That wasn't anything he'd heard about. "The Ultimate what? I think that might actually be worse than Peace Patrol, but not by much."

[fired_once]

"Just the Ultimates." There was a lot Tony could comment on, but he chose not to. Best to keep at it and such. "Spider-Woman told me about them, that I was on their team. She'd never heard of the Avengers." He paused, then continued. "Not much more data on it than that. There are more important things than who I hang out with in an alternate timeline."

A pointed look.

"Usually."

[lessmanmoreiron]

Had he been capable of it, Tony would have grinned at his other self. As it was, he shifted his stance slightly, and internally he was grinning.

"If any enemies that are out for my blood or angry exes show up from home, I'll be sure to tell you," He said, "We can deal with 'Ultimate' Tony Stark if and when he shows up."

Apparently Spider-Woman was from that universe and not his. Black Bolt was probably from his, or one closely related.

[fired_once]

"I'd hope you would," Tony replied, half-jokingly. "Here's hoping that none of those show up, though."

He gave a small chuckle, but his expression shifted from joking to thoughtful after a moment. "I'm sure you'd already know about mine... Stane, Vonko... I'd say Hammer, but he's more of an idiot than a threat. There's a few threats here, but only one after me specifically." He tapped a few keys, and an image appeared projected up on one of his holographic monitors. "This one follows interesting tech and tries to steal it. Took a liking to my suits. I guess they are fashionable."

[lessmanmoreiron]

"Very fashionable, and appropriate for any occasion." That was an interesting selection for his other self to already know. His long term memory was still a mess, but that didn't quite match up in his mind for being from the first year.

"If you make it out of here, you're probably going to spend the rest of your life keeping people from stealing your tech. For here, though, I'd suggest implementing integrated biometric security and a few other measures to render it useless to anyone else, if you're not doing that already," Tony suggested. He might be altering things in this other Tony's timeline, but not in the past. Did that make it more acceptable? He wasn't quite sure, but it would keep people here who shouldn't have the technology from getting it.

"There's no chance he'll be able to steal my armor."

[fired_once]

A long, long pause followed that statement. Well, Meta wasn't high on the threats list, with his current position, but-

Well. He really had no choice but to bring that one up now, did he?

"Actually, there's something else you should know." He made a few quick keystrokes on his desk. There wasn't an actual keyboard, but rather a holographic interface imitating one. But the function was the same, and after a moment and a few passwords being inputted, three images appeared, floating over the desk.

These were full 3d models. Life-sized, made up of the blue that most of Tony's holographic schematics came in, and... they were definitely three different suits of Tony's own designs. Slightly less advanced than the one under the floor of the office, but still very nice, and very deadly in the wrong hands.

Which is exactly where the real things were.

"A while back, the castle took on the appearance of Los Angeles. It outfitted my home there with some prototype armors in my workshop, and three of them were stolen." He pressed another button, and three packs appeared on the suits, obvious alterations that weren't there originally. "The people who took them live out in the Dead Zone, a place where magic and technology doesn't work... but they outfitted them with some sort of battery pack that actually lets them function out there."

If anybody started giving this other him weird looks for... being in armor... Well, it'd be obvious why.

[lessmanmoreiron]

There was a strange, mechanical noise that came from Tony as the meatbag Tony explained about the stolen technology that might have been some kind of frustrated sigh. This was just perfect. He started to bring a hand up to his face but aborted the motion and let it fall again.

Obviously, getting one of those battery packs would be incredibly valuable to them both. However, having even an earlier model suit in the hands of the wrong people was very bad, in a very non-trivial way. "Tell me you had override codes in them. Preferably verbal overrides, and that you've told everyone the codes to shut them down," Tony said, although he had little hope that this was the case.

The fact that this day managed to find a way to continue to get worse might have been alarming. There was nothing he didn't recognize, and from what he could see of the blue prints, the weaponry was more or less basic and not advanced.

"I want the full specs for these, and speaking of technology..." Tony turned away from the models, even though he had full three hundred sixty degree vision it was still habit to face someone as he spoke to them, "I think we can help one another."

He also probably needed to explain a little about his current situation. His power supply wasn't going to last forever, though he still had considerable time before there was any reason to be concerned. "But there is something I need to explain about my current armor, and having your help with this, while not imperative, would be preferable."

[fired_once]

"What about your current armor?"

Tony had gathered a little more about this other Tony from their conversation. He wasn't an evil version, he was fairly certain. And he wasn't a fake. A fake wouldn't be so knowledgeable about his own suits, nor would he be as intelligent as Tony himself was. That might have been an ego talking, but it was good enough.

But what was this problem his alternate self had that he could help with? It got him curious.

[lessmanmoreiron]

"Well, as I'm sure you know, the original armor was made under unique circumstances. It preserved my life and kept my heart beating... with this latest model I decided to preserve an even more critical organ," Tony said, he paused, and contemplated making a joke there about the critical organ.

"In the even that I was near death, or fatally injured, an emergency protocol would kick in. My consciousness was uploaded, or rather, copied to this suit."

It was fairly unbelievable, so Tony opened up the helmet and the chest plate, the hidden joints exposing the interior of the armor and the fact that there was no one inside. There was, however, a fair amount of dried blood on the interior lining. "I am now literally one with my armor. The benefits of my shiny new body are varied and numerous, but there are some limitations and downsides."

Explaining this to himself was simple, he didn't actually need to spell out the limitations.

[fired_once]

Tony's response to the plot twist was rather downplayed, but still very much like Tony Stark. "I'm not sure writing a program to simulate being drunk would be as satisfying."

Still, by the expression on his face, it was obvious that he was a little, if not a lot, taken aback by this revelation. Copying his consciousness was something that, well, might work in theory, but having actually been able to pull it off, and be willing to pull off, was something else entirely. If it was a last-ditch effort to save his life, then it also meant that he lost it- or almost lost it.

His mind was still processing this all, figuring what it meant- for him, for his double, for their stay in Paradisa.

After a few moments, he spoke again. Naturally, what he said didn't quite reflect his thought process. "You know, this is one of those times I surprise even myself."

[lessmanmoreiron]

The remark about simulating being drunk brought a quick response from Tony. "I would never hear the end of it if I fell off the wagon in a body that can't drink." It was still really tempting. He wasn't sure how long he was going to stay sober. Maybe if he had enough to occupy his time. He couldn't have sex either. That should be enough to drive most people to drink.

He closed himself back up again after a moment. "I think one shocking revelation is enough, don't you? My point is that I need continual power and repairs to live. It's possible that even if this armor receives irreparable damage, my programming could live on. The only person I'd trust to work on my armor is me. Especially now that it's the only thing keeping me alive."

[fired_once]

"I can see how that would be an issue." His mind was still going through what, exactly, this revelation entailed, but he could run that thought process in the background. His mind might not be a computer, like his armor-only counterpart, but he could manage that. "That armor's going to need to be in perfect condition at all times... you can't slack off when it's your body."

Not that he'd slack off with a powered armor regardless. But still, it was the thought that counts.